Sueños Program participants and staff recently spent an exciting day visiting the Exploratorium on Pier 15 in San Francisco! SCCOE Annual Report to the Community - The State of Education in Santa Cruz County 2014-15Check out the SCCOE's annual report to find out lots of information about education in Santa Cruz County.
Sueños Program Participants Visit the San Francisco ExploratoriumSueños Program participants and staff recently spent an exciting day visiting the Exploratorium on Pier 15 in San Francisco!
Santa Cruz Teachers Dig Up Prehistoric Gomphotherium FossilTwo Santa Cruz teachers have an exciting story to share with their students about what they did over summer vacation. Ponderosa High Students Clean up Lompico ParkFor more than three decades, Lompice Creek provided cool fresh water for swimming at a little park at a bend in the narrow mountain road. The Santa Cruz County Office of Education provides quality educational programs and services to a diverse community. So you’re thinking of taking a criminal justice degree to start your career as a law enforcement officer, homeland security specialist, criminologist, FBI Agent, corrections officer, probations specialist or another related field. Organized Crime: In this class, you will learn about historical and present day criminal organizations, from structured gangs to mob families. Criminal Behavior: You will get inside the mind of criminals, from serial killers to young offenders, as part of this course. Criminal Investigation: This type of class goes into the importance of collecting and analyzing evidence and interviewing suspects or witnesses as part of both the investigative and legal courtroom stages. Law Enforcement and Society: As part of this or a similar course, you and your fellow students will have the chance to learn about and openly discuss some interesting issues when it comes to policing.
For those who possess a strong sense of duty, a clear head in urgent situations, and who enjoy working with the public, a career in law enforcement might be just the ticket. Victoria College offers an Associate of Applied Science degree in criminal justice that prepares students for an entry-level position in the criminal justice field. Before signing up for the first class, students interested in a career in law enforcement can get a glimpse of their future by watching a TV program. VC’s criminal justice coursework includes Fundamentals of Criminal Law, Court Systems and Practices, Texas Government, Federal Government, and Basic Counseling Skills.
Incoming freshmen are encouraged to take as many criminal justice courses and other classes as they can and then attend the Law Enforcement Academy during their last semester, Martinez said.
Martinez said the majority of VC’s criminal justice students will transfer to the University of Houston-Victoria or Sam Houston State University. Kelly Phelps, Director of VC’s Public Service Academies, said police departments are always looking for new employees. VC’s Law Enforcement Academy is an 18-week program that readies students to take the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement licensing exam. Criminal justice professionals may work as law enforcement officers, corrections officers, probation officers, loss prevention specialists, and other similar positions. Most law enforcement personnel have some college training, a certificate, associate degree, or bachelor’s degree.
About Victoria CollegeVictoria College has been a respected community partner in the Crossroads region since 1925 and continues to offer quality, affordable educational opportunities to help students achieve their dreams. The reasons for enrolling into online criminal justice classes are easiest to be explain with the well known fact that in the past few decades, our way of life changed significantly.
From the presented facts the conclusion leads that there are very important reasons to enroll into an online criminal justice degree program.
The complexity of criminal behavior is reflected in the existence of a large number of biological, psychological and sociological theories that try to explain this phenomenon. Current social reality, often as the supreme ideal of success, emphasizes profits, income, status, power, and not work and honesty.

Criminal justice programs allows students through the application of criminalistic techniques, tactics and methods to learn the science of Criminalistics.
Students studying forensic techniques as a part of their criminal justice classes will learn the development and appliance of the most suitable methods in the field criminal justice aimed at finding, securing, fixing and interpreting crime and clues relevant to criminal procedures and objects of criminal offense, by clarifying circumstances relevant to disclosing the criminal act, registration and identification of the offender as well as other persons and things.
Forensic scientists are people who using different scientific methods and modern laboratory techniques study compare and interpret found traces, and put them in direct connection with certain offenses. The success of forensic investigation depends on the forensic scientist, technical equipment and preparatory activities. Criminal Justice Studies are for the ones who want to acquire new skills and be capable to work in national and social sectors. Participants in online criminal justice classes through consultations with their mentors do seminary works on their compulsory courses as well as final work at the end of the studies, gaining criminal justice degree online. After the completion of some of the criminal justice colleges according to the main area of studying the undergraduate or graduate student can become a private or agency detective.
Criminal Justice represents a scientific discipline that with scientific methods studies the criminal law as a system of positive legislation, identifying its basic principles, concepts and institutions and linking them to the harmonized system (criminal – legal dogmatism). Criminal justice as a science, studies the historical development of this branch of law, and also determines with critical analysis, if necessary with the comparative method of disadvantages of the positive criminal law and thus preparing the path of its development and perfecting. The main goal of Criminology and Criminal Justice degree is to get students acquainted with the theoretical and methodological contents concerning the implementation of criminal procedures, especially during the preparation of criminal proceedings, surveys and investigations. The Informal measures and actions of police authorities are presented at a general level of information in order to facilitate understanding of the content of procedural actions with presentation of their cognitive and information values for further action by law authorities. Computer forensics is a relatively new discipline within the field of Criminal Justice sciences that deals with collection, detection, protection and analysis of evidence in a digital form and includes their presentation of as evidence material in subsequent possible legal proceedings.
Computer forensics is an important part of forensic science not only for capture and conviction of cyber-criminals, but also a range variety of criminal offenders. The goal of criminal justice online classes in computer forensics is to familiarize students with the current state of the digital artifacts.
Are you wondering if until you start your exciting profession whether the training to get there will be a drag?
You will delve into their daily routines while also learning about law enforcement and legal strategies to combat them, while discussing possible new strategies. You will study what causes deviance and violence, exploring both genetic and environmental factors.
You will get to learn about procedures such as crime scene preservation, fingerprint analysis, forensic photography, interviewing techniques, courtroom testimonies and how to properly handle physical evidence. These include racial profiling, police presence in the community, what constitutes coercive force and cases of police corruption.
If they decide not to go through the academy, students can earn an AAS degree and then have the option to transfer.
Victoria College offers the two-year Associate of Applied Science degree in criminal justice, which includes VC’s Law Enforcement Academy.
Whether you are beginning your college education, transitioning into a new career, learning new skills to advance in your job, or simply seeking personal enrichment, attending VC is a smart choice.. For both kids and adults the every day life has become more complex, therefore its hard for everyone to function within the socially acceptable limits. Criminal justice degree graduates are above all mostly needed in the public sector (especially the courts, public prosecution, law enforcement), and then in the private sector (especially lawyers).
Many activities from the edge of the law are tolerated if they are done from privileged people, while individuals of marginal significance are subjected to legal sanctions.
Criminalistic techniques, studied on criminal justice classes are in field of criminalistics that deals with the scientific – technical aspects of finding, processing and interpretation of evidence material as well as by the registration and identification of persons and goods in order to prevent crime, clarify the events, detection of crimes and perpetrators as well as securing evidence.

Forensic experts are highly specialized persons engaged in the investigation of crimes and accidents. Except the degree in criminal justice a forensic scientist is required to have personal and professional experience and certain characteristics as curiosity and tendency to experimenting. The required and elective courses in online criminal justice degree programs combine in-depth insights into the Criminal Law, Criminal Procedural Law, Criminology, Criminal Policy, Organized Crime Combating, Protection of human rights in criminal proceedings, International Criminal Law, Economic crimes from the perspective of comparative law, etc.
On the one hand, they introduce the rule of law and within its scope they are solving problems of the individual in relationship with the repressive state system.
Individuals and agencies gain right to carry out detective work by obtaining a license issued by the Commission for licensing private security activities. In accomplishing its task, it is a normative science, necessarily relies onto many other scientific disciplines, particularly those which have as their object studying of criminality. Students enrolled in criminology online classes will gain insight into criminal procedures, the purposeful organization and planned implementation of measures and actions of police bodies and criminal proceedings, as well as ways of implementing these measures as a prerequisite for effective planning of crime reduction. The curriculum of the online criminal justice course offers structural, teleological and realistic perspective to students, while treating criminal procedures as a combination of theoretical postulates in the Criminal Justice fields.
The term digital artifact can include computer systems, data storage media such as hard disk or DVD media, electronic document (e-mail messages, digital photography) and a number of network packets.
In a homeland security or terrorism class, you will learn about this governmental department’s strategies and also about how various terrorist cells operate and how terrorism has had an impact on civil rights. Thus, modern societies need specialists who will fulfill the needs for security and to deal with these delicate subjects. Criminal justice science therefore, has to constantly develop as a new interdisciplinary field consisted of all common areas and branches according to the needs of criminal law. Until now science has not formulated a unique and comprehensive model that would perceive the essence of criminal phenomena.
Thus, with application of expertise in various fields, including chemistry, biology, physics and medicine they find physical evidence at the crime scene and try to understand what has actually happened and who the perpetrator is. He must constantly monitor developments in science and practically apply them into his work. The study programs are adapted to the current needs of practice with regard to the process of criminal legislation.
In order to get a work permit, the future detective has to meet certain requirements, similar to the conditions that must be met by the employees in the security sector. Emphasis of this criminal justice major is placed on: informal investigative actions, urgent investigative actions and special surveys. As part of a criminal justice degree there are a plethora of intriguing courses that will whet your whistle before you are released into the real world. The development of criminal justice through the scientific and practical professional work of teachers and students attending criminal justice classes will undoubtedly influence the development of legislation and the legal thought. We can conclude that forensic are also scientists because they, like all the other scientists rely on scientific methods. Many colleges and universities also bring the real world into the classroom by employing instructors who once patrolled the streets, worked in correctional facilities or worked in some other facet of the legal justice system. Criminal justice students are quite familiar with the practice that a forensic scientist firstly take notes, observes and then collects the data. After collecting all the data he processes them in his laboratory, and on that basis he presents his theory of the event he investigates.